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Notes for Meditation 

ON THE 

Beatitudes of the Psalter 



By 
ARTHUR W. JENKS, D.D. 

M 

Professor of Church History y General Theological 
Seminary, New York City 



NEW YORK 
R. W. CROTHERS 

Nineteenth Street at Irving Place 

1914 



* 



BS mo 



Copyright, 1914 
R. W. CROTHERS 



FEB 28 1914 



©CI.A362715 



INSCRIBED TO THE 

MOTHER FOUNDRESS 

AND 

SISTERS OF S. JOHN THE DIVINE 

TORONTO 

BY THE WARDEN 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction — The Nature of Beatitude . . 9 
I. The Blessedness of Integrity. Psalm 

1:1,2 i5 

II. The Blessedness of the Pardoned 
Penitent. Psalm XXXII. 1 24 

III. The Blessedness of Vocation. Psalm 
LXV. 4 32 

IV. The Blessedness of Worship and Service. 
Psalm LXXXIV. 4 41 

V. The Blessedness of Detachment. Psalm 

CXIX. j 49 

VI. The Blessedness of Love for our 

Neighbor. Psalm XLI. 1 57 

VII. The Blessedness of Godly Pear. Psalm 
CXIL 1 64 



THE BEATITUDES OF 
THE PSALTER 



THE BEATITUDES OF 
THE PSALTER 

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS— 
WHAT IS BEATITUDE. 

The Psalter begins with a Beatitude 
and ends with an Alleluia. If we think 
of the Psalms as a most marvelous 
portraying of human nature working 
out its expression on all possible sides 
and struggling towards the highest, 
truest and noblest ideals, we shall turn 
to them again and again in our penitence, 
in our aspirations, in some solemn 
season like Lent, or some time of 
voluntary retirement from the world 
such as a Retreat, or some experience 
of providential seclusion such as comes 
with bodily illness, and we shall find our 
life's condition set forth in the Psalms 
together with suggestions and methods 
9 



10 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

for passing out of one stage into another 
and higher. Above all we are able to 
find in the Psalms an approximation to 
the perfect man — the measure of the 
stature of the fulness of Christ, that 
which we long in our better moments to 
find reproduced in ourselves. 

One helpful method of using these 
wonderful poems for our spiritual edi- 
fication, the building ourselves up nearer 
perfection, is to trace one line of thought 
through the entire series of Psalms. 
Then we get not so much detached 
glimpses of beauties, but complete 
visions. We get something like con- 
structive results in character building. 
The material is not merely gathered to- 
gether but is put into some form. This 
is a highly desirable end to achieve. 
One of the common and disappointing 
aspects of Christian life today lies in 
the fact that so many rest content with 
admiring detached virtues and good 
qualities in the abstract, while they 
never go on or even seem to realize that 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 11 

they ought to go on to reproduce this 
many-sided type of Christlikeness. 

Now we find running through the 
poems of the Psalter, like a bright- 
colored thread through a fabric of many 
hues, a series of sayings like that series 
with which the Sermon on the Mount 
opens — a set of Beatitudes, or laws of 
happiness. And we find them expressed 
in the same striking phrase in English 
which represents both the words in the 
Sermon on the Mount and the meaning 
of the Psalmist. For the underlying 
principle of true happiness, or beatitude, 
is found in its constituting not a single 
experience, but a series of experiences 
which lead up to a state of life. As we 
place side by side the Beatitudes of the 
Gospel and of the Psalter we find some 
are parallel, as for example the opening 
of the 119th Psalm — "Blessed are those 
who are undefiled in the way," and our 
Lord's words — "Blessed are the pure 
in heart/ ' Again, "Blessed is he that 
considereth the poor and needy* ' may 



12 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

be taken to correspond to the Gospel 
Beatitude — "Blessed are the merciful." 
But in other cases the Psalms and the 
Gospel approach the subject from stand- 
points peculiar to each. The general ob- 
ject, however, is the same, — to set forth 
the life of sanctity, the blessed life, as a 
diamond reflects from each of its facets 
the light of the sun. Each one of the 
members of Christ's Body who has 
entered into the state of fulfilling any 
part of the Divine Will reflects in his 
life some portion of the Divine Life, and 
so possesses a portion of perfect 
beatitude. 

The Psalter begins with a Beatitude 
and ends with an Alleluia. Those who 
strive to imitate and reproduce all 
the Divine perfections, and who long to 
realize them all, will one day enjoy the 
Beatific Vision, and forever sing Alleluia 
to the Ever Blessed Trinity. 

Let us just ask ourselves at the out- 
start what is to be understood by 
beatitude. Happiness and peace are 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 13 

other terms which serve to express the 
ultimate outcome of beatitude, though 
the blessedness may be present, before 
the happiness is experienced or the 
peace attained. David the penitent 
"whose unrighteousness was forgiven 
and whose sin was covered" was 
blessed, but peace and happiness could 
not come with the recollection of the 
sins fresh upon him. 

All these terms, however, indicate a 
"state of the soul which is conscious of 
the possession and enjoyment of the 
(perfect) good." Beatitude may also be 
described as a sharing in the Life Eternal. 
Happiness has reference to the per- 
petual and unlimited activity of the soul 
in the "service which is perfect free- 
dom." Peace refers to the state of the 
soul wherein it is incapable of being 
disturbed or marred. 

Some one has said that "to be happy 
the way is to set before you the good 
which God tells you to be really good, 
to pursue it with honest effort, to keep 



H The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

down the unruly will which revolts 
from the Lord and His law, to mortify 
the deeds of the body, to give scope to 
the influences of the Spirit, to overcome 
the world/ ' 

Beatitude is the final end of man, and 
all seek it either by right or wrong 
methods. "To be blessed/ ' says S. 
Chrysostom, "is so great a good that 
bad men and good men wish for it." 

The full attainment of beatitude is 
never in this life. The road is the path 
of duty, followed with sacrifice and self- 
denial, with sad acknowledgment of 
infirmity and weakness and with con- 
tinual dependence upon Divine strength. 
Duty may become a chastened pleasure 
and comparative peace, but beatitude 
full and final is attained only when the 
soul has passed through the grave and 
gate of death to a merciful judgment 
and joyful resurrection. 



THE BLESSEDNESS OF 
INTEGRITY. 

"Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the 
counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way oj 
sinners: and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful. 

"But his delight is in the law of the Lord." 

Psalm I. 2, 3. 

As we approach the consideration of 
these laws of spiritual happiness con- 
tained in the Psalms we should pray 
God to give us a great longing and 
hunger for beatitude, or the attainment 
of the perfect good, so that we may 
treat all the thoughts and monitions of 
the Holy Spirit as personal and prac- 
tical and meant to advance for each one 
the growth in holiness. 

Then we may remind ourselves in 

this connection as in our study of the 

Psalms in general and at all times that 

the heart and core of the Book as a 

15 



16 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

whole is the picture of the ideal and 
pattern man, the perfect fulfillment of 
which is found in Him Who was and is 
Perfect Man, and it is in Him that we 
may find the perfect realization and 
working out of each and all of the beati- 
tudes. Thus these beatitudes in the 
Psalms are simply one way in which we 
are called to the imitation of Christ. 
This call to follow His example the 
Christian Church supplements by giving 
us power to do so in the sacramental 
life of the Church, and this empowering 
is the distinctive application of the truth 
and religion of the Word-made-flesh. 

For the sake of vividness in the 
carrying out of these principles it is 
helpful in approaching each of these 
beatitudes, as in general it is helpful 
in the practice of Meditation, to try to 
picture our Lord at some moment of 
His earthly life so situated and acting 
as tp exemplify the truth set forth. 

To aid us in the interpretation and 
application of these opening words of 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 17 

the first Psalm, let us represent our Lord 
towards the end of His earthly life and 
ministry boldly challenging the Jews in 
Jerusalem — " Which of you convinceth 
Me of sin?" This is an assertion of 
moral integrity, the state of righteous- 
ness in outward relations to others. 
There is no flaw or weakness in the 
"armour of righteousness on the right 
hand and on the left, " nothing to be 
feared from the testing that comes "by 
honour and dishonour, by evil report 
and good report.' ' There is found 
nothing at which others can cavil and 
sneer and say his life is an inconsistent 
one. 

Now turn to the Psalm with which 
the Psalter opens, and notice 

I. THE STATE OF INTEGRITY. 

Three lines of conduct have been 
avoided — conforming to worldly maxims 
as the deciding counsel, "hath not 
walked in the counsel of the ungodly;" 
dallying with temptation, "stood in the 



18 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

way of sinners ;" settling down to a 
disregard of right, "sat in the seat of 
the scornful/ ' These three lines of 
conduct may be expressed in another 
way as sinning against light, love and 
grace. All too abundant illustrations 
are forthcoming of these attitudes. Neg- 
lecting prayer, meditation or any form 
of deliberate thinking on holy subjects, 
including devotional study of Holy 
Scripture, which many people warmly 
champion theoretically and neglect prac- 
tically — these are examples of sinning 
against light. He sins against love who 
refuses to fight temptation, and to let 
the cross of self-denial and self-dis- 
cipline enter into his life, for the Cross 
is the very summing up of Divine Love. 
Showing "despite unto the Spirit of 
grace/ ■ or sinning against grace, is 
intimately connected with the neglect 
of such means of strengthening the weak 
will as God has given us in the channels 
through which Divine strength or grace 
is bestowed, chiefly the Sacraments. 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 19 

On the other hand, the positive side 
of this blessed state of integrity is seen 
in the cheerful acceptance and adoption 
of God's Will as the law of conduct, and 
that not as a choice made by compulsion, 
and adopted as the barest minimum, but 
with "delight in the law of the Lord," 
and with persevering attempts to sound 
the depths of its meaning. Such a state 
is that of those who are not content to 
keep the negative precepts of the Mosaic 
law, but aim at the positive law of Love. 
Whoever is in this state will frequent the 
House of God and the Sacraments, rather 
than be satisfied with a rule of once a 
Sunday or once a month with no ideal of 
growth and of mounting step by step to- 
wards that which will be the experience of 
the future life and may be in a measure 
realized here and now, daily worship and 
intercourse with God. 

II . THE BEATITUDE WHICH RESULTS. 

First, there is growth and development. 
"He shall be like a tree planted by the 



20 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

waterside. ' ' More joy is found in prayer, 
time spent in meditating on Divine 
things becomes a satisfaction, sacrifice 
and self-denial become an atmosphere 
of life in which strength is inhaled, 
the Bread of Life and the Water of Life 
are continual nourishment which meets 
the cravings of the soul. Here is an 
excess of blessedness plain to perceive, 
akin to that of which our Lord speak 
when he declares — "Blessed are they 
that hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for they shall be filled/ ' 

Then there is fruit. Something comes 
of this growth. There will be the ap- 
pearance of some virtue, some fruit of 
the Spirit, love, joy, peace, meekness, 
gentleness, goodness, as the result of 
growth and nourishment. Such fruit 
will be a thing of beauty. 

Again, there is vigor y hardiness of life. 
"His leaf shall not wither and whatso- 
ever he doeth shall prosper.' ' Has our 
Lord's life and example become weaker 
with the lapse of the centuries? No 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 21 

more shall the life that is lived in the 
power of His life and in imitating His 
integrity cease to be an inspiration and 
a power. 

III. HOW TO GAIN THIS BEATITUDE. 

No path is surer to lead to happiness 
of the kind asserted by the Psalmist 
than that of paying careful heed to the 
positive duties of our religion. We mean 
such matters as daily prayer, regular 
communions, sincere self examination, 
deliberate and carefully planned giving 
of time and money for the work of 
Chrises Kingdom. Many of us are so 
thoughtless, careless, spasmodic and im- 
pulsive. 

Beware of . ignoring counsel. The 
Church in her advice and warnings, in 
the ordinary round of teaching is con- 
tinually affording us just the healthful 
stimulus and reminders that we need 
for our ordinary daily Christian life. 
It is exceedingly dangerous and event- 
ually disastrous to throw all this counsel 



22 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

aside in an easy-going way, to "sit in 
the seat of the scornful." 

We need to have a horror of getting 
settled into a habit of laxity. It is the 
lukewarmness of Laodicaea, the negative 
condition which in all ages of the 
Christian Church has called forth un- 
sparing condemnation when it has 
characterized large sections of the Chris- 
tian body, and lay back of those re- 
actions in the early centuries which 
lead to "unhappy divisions" in the 
Church of S. Cyprian and S. Augustine, 
and which similarly so disturbed the 
Wesleys as to lead them to their ill- 
advised attitude and finally to separa- 
tion. In the individual this laxity 
always undermines spiritual strength 
and vigor. It may result in a sort of 
drowsy, apathetic placidity, but never 
in active, joyous happiness. 

"The happiness here spoken of," says 
Fr. Benson, "is not a high aim which 
the few may seek, and even they can 
only seek in vain. It is the law of life 






The Beatitudes of the Psalter 28 

by which we are hereafter to be judged. 
Therefore they who have not sought 
happiness here in the law of the Lord 
cannot receive happiness hereafter from 
the Lord." 



n. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE 
PARDONED PENITENT. 

"Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is for- 
given: and whose sin is covered" 

Psalm XXXII. i. 

This Psalm is one of that wonderful 
group called the Penitential Psalms. 
Nevertheless it sings the joy, the happi- 
ness of one who has passed through the 
valley of the shadow of sin which is the 
real death, and has entered the sunlight 
of God's renewed favour. 

We may place before our minds our 
Lord, the sinless Penitent, bearing the 
sins of the whole race on the Cross, and 
uttering the cry: "My God, why hast 
Thou forsaken Me?" and then the 
utterance of relief — "It is finished.' ' 
Also we may think of our Lord as the 
great Absolver, saying to the penitent — 
24 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 25 

"Thy sins be forgiven thee: go and sin 
no more." 



I. THE STATE OF PARDON. 

We are told that S. Augustine often 
read this Psalm weeping, and before his 
death had it written upon the wall where 
he could see it from his sick-bed. It 
presents to us the condition of relief from 
an overwhelming and crushing burden. 

The fifty-first Psalm shows us the 
soul bowed down under the load of sin 
and is a cry for mercy. The thirty- 
second Psalm is the outburst of the soul 
from which the burden has been removed 
and is a cry of chastened, thankful joy. 

Four aspects of this state are men- 
tioned. Transgression, or disloyalty, is 
set aside as no longer the unhappy rela- 
tionship between the soul and its King — 
"whose unrighteousness is forgiven." 
Sin, or error, is no longer at hand to be 
gazed upon — "whose sin is covered." 
The moral default depravity is re- 
moved — "the Lord imputeth no sin." 



26 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

The guilt of deceit, or insincerity, no 
longer tinges and conditions the soul's 
activity — "in whose spirit there is no 
guile/ ' The lust of David, the pride of 
S. Peter, the cowardice of S. John, the 
ignorant hatred of Saul of Tarsus, each 
and all are gone; they do not exist. 
The handwriting of the ordinance that 
was against them is blotted out. Think 
of all the strong figurative expressions 
used in Holy Scripture to set forth the 
completeness of the forgiven state — 
cleansing, imparting righteousness, ab- 
solving, taking away a burden, recon- 
ciliation. All these and other expres- 
sions emphasize the completeness of 
changed relationship, viewed from all 
sides, and imply healing, rehabilitation, 
renewed freedom from the entangle- 
ments of the past, intrinsic righteousness. 

II. THE BEATITUDE OF THE STATE OF 
FORGIVENESS. 

As the soul stands conscious of God's 
presence and scrutiny there is nothing 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 27 

to hide, nothing to explain, nothing to 
preclude friendship. Adam and Eve 
hid from the face of God in the misery 
of concealed and unacknowledged sin. 
They could not continue in communion 
with a Being Who is of purer eyes than 
to behold iniquity. The happiness of 
restoration to favour is deep and en- 
trancing. We can look up, we can go 
forward, we can work. The health of 
the soul is renewed; prayer is prac- 
ticable; sight and knowledge are again 
ours. The soul is light, free, eager to 
assimilate the high and exacting truths 
of revelation. It can believe. Sin un- 
repented of and unpardoned is the great 
foe to faith. Thanksgiving is the ex- 
hilarating air that the forgiven soul 
breathes. O the blessedness of him 
whose unrighteousness is forgiven! 

It is not too much to say that the 
attainment of this especial beatitude 
has been the conscious object for which 
countless souls have striven, and which 
lies back of the sacrificial and pro- 



28 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

pitiatory systems of so many religions. 
And with all done that could be sug- 
gested as likely to appease an outraged 
deity, and with all the ceremonial wash- 
ings and purifications that could be de- 
vised nothing was found comparable to 
the washing their robes and making them 
white in the Blood of the Lamb, the 
efficacy of whose blood-shedding lies 
in the mysterious truth that the Lamb 
of God is God, and so His Blood has 
infinite efficacy. He Himself has borne 
the eternal penalty of sin. He made 
"peace through the blood of His 
Cross" and to extend that reconcilia- 
tion " sanctified water to the mystical 
washing away of sin." Mystical but 
none the less real is the washing of the 
Sacrament of cleansing, Holy Baptism, 
which along with the Ministry of Recon- 
ciliation for sins committed after Bap- 
tism, has been the means whereby 

Laden souls by thousands meekly stealing, 
Kind Shepherd turn their weary steps to Thee. 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 29 

III. HOW THIS BEATITUDE IS AT- 
TAINED. 

This state of happiness is entered upon 
only by the sorrowful path of contrition, 
or sorrow for sin as against God, by 
confession, or the putting of the specific 
acts or habits into the expression of 
words, and accompanied by deter- 
mination to amend. All three are 
requisite in some degree, or manner. 
We would gladly let ourselves off with 
one or the other, but somehow the 
happiness does not come until quite 
humbly we have passed through all 
three of these stages, and in the right 
order. How can the life be spiritually 
healthy so long as the old disease is still 
working, even though we determine not 
to break any more the laws which our 
failure to keep has brought on the 
disease? How can we say we are sorry 
for our misdeeds so long as we will 
not determine to forsake them? And 
how can we expect to have a disease 



30 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

diagnosed and cured, if we will not go 
to the physician and admit that the 
disease exists? 

Let us not deceive ourselves on an- 
other point. Attrition, or the sorrow 
for sin as it affects ourselves, may be a 
minimum sufficient to bring us to con- 
fession and determination to amend, 
but contrition or the sorrow for sin as 
disobedience to a wise, loving, tender 
and merciful Being — "Against Thee 
only have I sinned' ' — is what we aim at 
experiencing. And contrition is not 
perfect when there is only a turning 
from sin to self, but when there is a 
turning from self to God; not only — 
"I will arise' ' but, "I will arise and go 
unto my father.' ' 

Contrition contains an element of 
love, and that element of love remains, 
as a part of the happiness of the penitent, 
even when the sin has been forgotten. 
The soul loved so much that it could not 
be happy until it had told in its own 
words what was wrong and for very 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 31 

love promised obedience to the Will of 
the Beloved One. 

"Contrition is the moulding and con- 
trolling force that forms, restores and 
preserves the penitent. Its trans- 
forming power is so great that it can 
fit the greatest sinner for the company 
of the Saints. The Magdalen was not 
out of place beside the spotless Mother.' ' 

Before we emerge from a Retreat, or 
come to the end of a season such as 
Lent, or when we are preparing to take 
some such great step as Ordination, there 
should be present as a sign of sincerity 
the resolve to experience the blessed- 
ness of being absolved, so that we may 
come free and unhampered to the new 
period of life or the new work which 
God opens out before us. Accordingly 
there must be an effort towards fullest 
confession, deepest sorrow, strongest 
determination to do better. 

"O great Absolver, grant my soul may wear 
The lowliest garb of penitence and prayer, 
That in the Father's courts my glorious dress 
May be the garment of Thy righteousness." 



n, 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF VOCATION 

"Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and 
receivest unto Thee." Psalm LXV. 4. 

The Psalm from which this Beatitude 
is taken is thought to have been used 
at the Passover commemoration, when 
the wave-sheaf of the first-fruits was 
offered. And this gives a strong Mes- 
sianic interpretation to the passage 
before us, for we remember that the 
Resurrection took place the third day 
after the Passover, when the first-fruits 
were presented to God. Our Risen 
Lord was "the first-fruits of them that 
slept." The work which He had come to 
perform was complete with His rising 
from the dead. 

The Psalm is also often and fittingly 
selected for a Harvest Home festival, 
32 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 33 

because it praises God for crowning the 
efforts of man in his labours with 
plenteousness. Work undertaken in the 
natural order is the subject. 

This Beatitude, then, brings before 
us the blessedness of vocation, and we 
may represent our Lord in His youth 
saying — "Wist ye not that I must be 
about My Father's business ?" 

I. RESPONSE TO VOCATION. 

The state of one' who has responded 
to the call to a dintinct work or life is 
presented to us in this Psalm — "Blessed 
is the man whom Thou choosest, and 
receivest unto Thee: he shall dwell in 
Thy court, and shall be satisfied with 
the pleasures of Thy House, even of 
Thy holy temple." 

The state of such a soul is not by any 
manner of means enviable from one 
standpoint. The life of full response to 
vocation is not an easy life. It is most 
difficult, if one really means to attain 
the perfection of the life for which he 



34 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

has been chosen. It means daily re- 
nunciation, discipline, humiliations, pe- 
culiar and special temptations, absence 
of certain alleviations which in other 
walks of life may be used. This is true 
of the Priesthood, of the Religious Life, 
and of the Christian life everywhere, 
considered as a special vocation. 

Monotony, separation, inability to 
change about at one's will, the gradual 
drifting away from others who are called 
in a different direction — all these con- 
stitute a peculiar trial. Our Lord must 
preach only to the Jews and the mass 
of them were unreceptive of His real 
message. He must put up with the 
Twelve who were often so disappointing. 
He must go on unremittingly with His 
labours and meet with failure, and He 
knew that things would narrow them- 
selves more and more until He was left 
to face His enemies and His judges alone. 
Yet His response to the Will of the 
Father was complete. 

Special vocations are likely to present 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 35 

just these aspects, and it is largely on this 
account that Christians so continually 
put aside the suggestion that they may 
be divinely called to a particular sphere 
of activity, or a certain state of life. 
There is at the present time an in- 
adequate, pitifully inadequate, number 
of clergy to supply the demand for the 
extension of the Kingdom. Few seem 
to consider the question of vocation to 
Religious Life in the Orders and Com- 
munities for men and women. There is 
a great and growing need for laymen 
who will devote themselves to certain 
lines of parochial and missionary activity 
which can be done just as well by laymen 
as by ordained men and which overbur- 
den the clergy and drain their strength. 
It is very likely to be explained by the 
fact that in all these special vocations the 
call is not to individual success and the 
exploiting of personal gifts so as to win 
the tribute of applause and congratu- 
lation from people in general, but a call 
to sink one's own work in the work of 



36 The Beatitudes of the Psalter* 

the Church as a body, to experience the 
toil, the criticism, the disappointment 
of unseen results, and to let the glory, 
the praise, the success be ascribed to 
God alone. 

The difficulty very likely lies in as- 
suming that there is no joy in such spe- 
cial vocations. Let us turn to that point. 

II. THE BEATITUDE OF VOCATION. 

To the question, wherein lies the 
happiness, we may find an answer by 
considering side by side with this Beati- 
tude another which is expressed in the 
fortieth Psalm — " Blessed is the man 
that hath set his hope in the Lord." 
This is contained in one of the Passion 
Psalms, the burden of the Psalm being 
the Sacrifice of the Will. " Lo I come to 
do Thy Will, O Lord; I am content 
to do it: yea, Thy law is within My 
heart." That is the secret, the response 
and conformity of the most wayward, 
rebellious, and the weakest part of our 
being in most of us- — the Will. 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter S7 

"I worship thee, sweet Will of God! 

And all thy ways adore, 
And every day I live I seem 

To love thee more and more. 



Thou wert the end, the blessed rule 
Of our Saviour's toils and tears; 

Thou wert the passion of His Heart 
Those three and thirty years. 

And He hath breathed into my soul 

A special love of Thee, 
A love to lose my will in His, 

And by that loss be free. 

Man's weakness waiting upon God 

Its end can never miss, 
For men on earth no work can do 

More angel-like than this. 

He always wins who sides with God, 

To him no chance is lost; 
God's Will is sweetest to him when 

It triumphs at his cost. 

Ill that He blesses is our good, 

And unblest good is ill; 
And all is right that seems most wrong, 

If it be His sweet Will." 



38 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

Here, then, lies the secret of beatitude 
in response to vocation. It is the will 
to do God's Will, as He wills, when He 
wills, and so long as He wills. It is 
safe to say that the steady, persistent, 
plausible setting before the minds of 
the young at the most critical stage of 
awakening thoughtfulness of the false 
ideas of success and the selfish outlook 
upon life, the omission of which the 
Church today is reaping the fruits to 
teach vocation to the Priesthood and 
the Religious Life clearly and definitely 
in our Church schools and in our par- 
ishes, has obscured most completely all 
idea of asking the momentous question — 
"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" 

III. HOW TO OBTAIN THIS BEATITUDE. 

We are to be content, instead of 
restless. "I have learned in whatso- 
ever state I am therewith to be con- 
tent." The misery and unhappiness 
of work come frequently from self- 
will and low motives in choosing our 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 39 

work, and so getting into a niche we 
were never meant to occupy and can- 
not fill. God's answer to our prayer to 
make known His choice is generally to 
be found in allowing the life to be shaped 
step by step according to His providence 
and under the guidance of His Church. 
The special vocation is sure to emerge 
in an environment which makes the 
ear quick to hear and the eye to see. 
On the other hand today parents, 
friends, educators, with worldly ambi- 
tions and standards, all have the weight 
with those who have to respond to 
God's call, so that often there is igno- 
rance that He can and does call. 

Was S. Paul unhappy when he wrote 
those triumphant words to Timothy — 
"Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness ?" "The lot is 
fallen unto me in a fair ground, yea, I 
have a goodly heritage" is the state of 
mind of those who have conformed to 
the known Will of God, and have fol- 
lowed His guidance even when it seemed 



1+0 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

inexplicable. Take it all in all, there 
are not any classes of men who so 
generally are characterized by Christian 
Joy, as are Priests and Religious. 

There is a widespread need that 
Christian people shall stop speaking of 
the Christian life as though it were 
a gloomy, miserable sort of life which 
we only undertake as a necessary pen- 
alty for desiring happiness hereafter. 
And likewise there should be a denial 
continually and decidedly of any such 
travesty of the Priesthood and other 
special vocations as make those so called 
appear as objects of pity. It is not so. 
The promise holds good — "He shall 
dwell in Thy court, and shall be satis- 
fied with the pleasures of Thy House, 
even of Thy holy temple.' ' 



IV. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF WORSHIP 
AND SERVICE 

"Blessed are they that dwell in Thy House; 
they will be alway praising Thee." 

Psalm LXXXIV. 4. 

Let us represent to ourselves our Lord 
frequenting His Father's House — at 
His Presentation, at the age of twelve, 
and throughout His earthly Ministry. 
Remember that the Temple service was 
a service of worship and prayer, both 
strongly objective. He dwelt in the 
House of God's special Presence. 

This Psalm belongs to a group, 
ascribed to the Sons of Korah, and 
characterized especially by acts and 
words of direct adoration. They cele- 
brate the Church, her worship, and her 
sacred rites. The new setting for them 
41 



h2 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

is found in the worship of the Christian 
Church patterned after the Vision of 
S. John of the worship of heaven where 
the Lamb upon the Altar-throne is the 
centre of worship and adoration. The 
forty-second and forty-third Psalms have 
been associated with the Sacrament of 
the Altar as Eucharistic, the forty-fifth 
speaks of external things in the beauty 
of worship, and the eighty-seventh is 
in praise of the Church. 

The Psalm before us speaks of the 
House, the Altar, the Courts, the 
offices of devotion. It ends with a burst 
of joyful recognition of the blessedness 
of those who trust in God rather than 
in the world. Liturgically, it belongs 
to the office of the Priest's preparation 
for offering the Holy Sacrifice, also to 
the Proper Psalms for the feasts of the 
Purification and the Transfiguration, 
while others of the same group belong 
to Christmas and Epiphany. The inter- 
pretation is very plain of the worship 
of God in the Church material, the 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 43 

Church Catholic, and before the Altar 
in the Eucharistic Presence. 

I. The state is that of one for whom 
the House of God, with all that belongs 
to it of the realization of the nearness, 
protection, and personal indwelling and 
communion, is the very heart and core 
of life. 

Think of the significance of the lan- 
guage used: — "they that dwell in Thy 
House"; "how amiable (i.e. lovable) 
are Thy dwellings'' ; "my soul hath a 
desire and longing to enter ' ' ; " my heart 
and flesh rejoice in the living God. 

We enter the Church and come before 
the Altar for worship which gives 
reality to our faith; for contemplation , 
in seclusion from the world of our 
ordinary affairs, whereby we advance in 
a knowledge of spiritual things; for 
obtaining grace which is the life of the 
soul. 

We cannot expect to find this state 
in that attitude which associates Church- 
going with a conventional side of re- 



44 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

ligion, or which looks upon public 
worship merely as a duty performed in 
order to be diverted, or religiously 
thrilled, or to dote upon the personality 
of the officiant, or merely to receive 
instruction and to listen to a pious essay. 
Perhaps we may find the difference 
between the ideal of God's House in 
this Psalm and the various attitudes 
just mentioned by bearing in mind that 
the Church teaches the special Presence 
of God in His House and her people 
come to meet Him there, whereas the 
other idea is that of a "God afar off 
and not a God nigh at hand/' and this 
distant Being is talked about in a 
special assembly for that purpose. Then 
again there is that Anglo-Saxon tem- 
perament, self-conscious and unimagin- 
ative, that does not like any truth that 
brings God very near, whether in an 
Incarnation in real human nature and 
permanently, or in the sacramental 
Presence which is the extension of His 
glorified Manhood. Men shut their 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 1*5 

eyes and hide from God, instead of 
having the eyes of their spiritual under- 
standing opened to " behold the King 
in His beauty.* " 

"So men, by some dark impulse, break the cord 
That bound their sires to worship and to faith; 

They will not know the terrors of the Lord 
Nor bow to all He saith 

Of sin and judgment; no, they cannot brook 
What seems a mystic saying, or a stern; 

And from His Church interpreting His Book 
They will not stoop to learn. 

And so for solid faith they substitute 

A mass of fluid thoughts, but half believed; 

And plant the flowers of love, without the root 
Of sacred facts received, 

Of doctrines strong to heal, amend, uplift; 

And finding thus no virtue in a Creed, 
They welcome not the all-surpassing gift 

Of God made flesh indeed. 

And they whose worldly peace would feel a sting 
If the Most High were thought to come so near, 

May well ignore His Sacraments, that bring 
All Heaven about us here." 



46 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

II. The blessedness of this state 
consists first and foremost in the fact 
that such a life is a direct preparation 
for the life of the world to come, the 
characteristics of which are adoration 
and communion in God's unveiled Pres- 
ence, where worship and service are one, 
where we are not to hear about God, 
but to be in the Beatific Vision. And in 
so far the Church's worship on earth is 
a foretaste of heaven. See how the two 
are interwoven with one another in the 
mind of the Psalmist. 

Next we should bear in mind that the 
perception of spiritual beauty increases 
as we use God's words, listen to His 
voice, think of the extension of the 
Incarnation in the Sacraments and in 
the mystical Body of which the faithful 
gathered together are a part. In His 
House we live in an atmosphere of 
prayer and love and devotion. Every- 
thing is meant to speak of the worthi- 
ness, the holiness, the majesty, the 
beauty of Him Who is King eternal, 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter Ift 

immortal, though to us now invisible, 
"the chief est among ten thousand and 
altogether lovely/ ' 

It is true also as He has revealed life 
in His Church that in His House is the 
meeting place of both worlds. Here we 
realize the Communion of Saints, or 
the truth that the common life of all 
His members is found in His own Life 
which comes to us in the Sacrament of 
His Life and Love. 

"Ye Saints of God, sweet Jesus' Body glorious, 
From Abel to the babe baptized but now, 
Ye that in paradise take rest victorious, 

Ye that on earth beneath the Cross still bow, 
Ye lightning- visaged hosts Angelical 

Here at this Holy Feast I meet you all; 
For heaven and earth are one in Thee, Lord 
Christ, 
Therefore I live for Thy dread Eucharist." 

III. We must weigh the relative value 
of worship and practical work, if we are 
to obtain the beatitude which comes 
from dwelling in God's House. Practical 
work has its limitations, personal, in 



U8 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

time, in possibilities, in skill, in results. 
Worship is forever, has no limit to prog- 
ress or possibilities, and has results 
incalculable in uplifting, ennobling, 
transforming. Moses went up to the 
mount human; he returned reflecting 
the Divine Glory. 

Work is a discipline, worship a re- 
ward. Work is so mixed up with self; 
worship is the soul forgetting self, rapt 
in the contemplation of the Holy One. 
Lacordaire has defined adoration as 
"the annihilation of self in the presence 
of a superior Being.' ' 

To be occupied in the lowliest position 
in the earthly courts is to be privileged 
beyond the highest attainments of 
human achievement, and this is within 
the reach of all Christians. No wonder 
that the Apostle who contemplated 
work and worship both was "in a strait 
betwixt two, having a desire to depart 
and to be with Christ which is far 
better." 






THE BLESSEDNESS OF 
DETACHMENT. 

"Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way: 
and walk in the law of the Lord. 11 

Psalm CXIX. i. 

Let us picture to our minds Him Who 
was "born of a pure virgin," and Who 
walked this earth for thirty-three years, 
amidst wickedness, worldliness and un- 
godliness, without one stain of sin upon 
the spotless purity of His human nature. 

In this Beatitude from the Psalms we 
come very close to the Beatitude from 
the Sermon on the Mount — " Blessed are 
the pure in heart.' ' Yet the Psalmist 
is looking at purity as unsullied by con- 
tact with surroundings. The standpoint 
of Christ's Beatitude is that of intrinsic 
purity. There is the difference em- 
phasized by these two Beatitudes be- 
49 



50 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

tween comparative and absolute purity. 
Our Blessed Lord exemplified both. We 
may be cleansed and so become pure 
from sin, but how difficult it is to keep 
that purity unsullied from contact with 
the surrounding impurity and corrup- 
tion. S. James paraphrases the words 
of the Psalm when he says — "Pure 
religion and undefiled before God and 
the Father is this — to keep himself un- 
spotted from the world/ ' 

These first words of the Psalm ex- 
plain why it is called the Psalm of the 
Saints, "the teacher of the faithful, 
Paradise of all fruits, storehouse of the 
Holy Ghost." We can understand with 
little difficulty why it has been the 
daily utterance and meditation of those 
who daily seek the secret of being in the 
world, but not of the world. It expresses 
the true spirit of ecclesiastics — "the 
pure intention to live for God, the zeal 
for His glory, charity for sinners, the 
enthusiastic love of the Divine law and 
the Divine perfections/ ' 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 51 

I. The state of life indicated is one of 
order, of ruled restraint and detach- 
ment, each characteristic being of a 
nature calculated to repel evil, to throw 
off that with which contact is inevitable, 
but without contamination, like Sir 
Galahad who sings: 

"My strength is as the strength of ten 
Because my heart is pure." 

The irregular, sluggish, self indulgent 
soul is easily at ,the mercy of venial sin 
and the corruption of deliberate sin 
which mar and stain the life. 

"How is the gold become dim! How 
is the fine gold changed !" Venial sin 
tarnishes, mortal sin intermingles dross. 
"Take away the dross from the silver 
and there shall come forth a vessel for 
the finer.' ' 

The Christian life was from the very 
first described as "the Way" by our 
Lord and His followers. Day by day 
we are called upon to walk in that way, 
but all around are the attractions and 



52 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

associations of the world. Rule of 
living, Christ's law, lead us forward. 
Our surroundings suggest relaxation of 
rule, transgression of law, making trial 
to see if God and mammon are irrec- 
oncilable. Miserable are those who do 
not make a supreme act of decision. 

Detachment is an attitude which 
is closely associated with listening to 
the voice of conscience. There may be 
great divergence as to the definition of 
conscience, but we all know how con- 
science acts and speaks. The " ought" 
or " ought not" of conscience bids us 
give up this or refrain from doing that 
because the danger is that God will be 
crowded out or put in a secondary 
place. We reply — "I will not" or "I 
wish to do it" and refuse to detach our- 
selves from what conscience tells us is 
dangerous or forbidden. Then our 
service of God is no longer whole- 
hearted, our allegiance is divided. Then 
it becomes more strongly attached to 
our will and detached from God's Will. 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 53 

Then we become entangled in a net- 
work of conflicting impulses, and try 
to balance the right and wrong or dis- 
cover the way out of our perplexity. 
But conscience is no longer heard, 
though we would be glad even of its 
disapproving voice. 

" 'Good-bye! I cried to my conscience, 
Good-bye for aye and aye!' 
And I put her hand off harshly, 
And I turned my face away. 

And conscience smitten sorely 
Returned not from that day — 

But a time came when my spirit 
Grew weary of its way. 

And I cried, ' Come back, my conscience, 

I long to see thy face/ 
But conscience said, ' I cannot ! 

Remorse sits in my place.' " 

II. If we should be told that some 
fearful form of temptation which had 
pulled us down again and again, which 
had filled us with horrible thoughts, 
could never appeal to us again, and would 



5Jp The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

not present the slightest attraction or 
charm, would not the sense of relief, 
the comfort of immunity, be inexpres- 
sible happiness? This is the very mean- 
ing of the promise of Christ — "If they 
drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt 
them." Did not S. Paul shake off the 
viper? And does not the tradition of 
S. John's escape from the poisoned 
Chalice illustrate the same truth? The 
peculiar beatitude is that of walking 
unscathed amidst temptations that are 
meant by Satan to drag us down, be- 
cause we have detached ourselves from 
that which appealed to us, and are 
walking in the law of the Lord. 

Is the price of renunciation, of dis- 
cipline, of rigid self -repression too great 
to pay for this state wherein the soul is 
like a defenced city. 

The principle of Lenten setting aside 
of allowable pleasures is an illustration 
of this principle of detachment. We 
choose to put out of our lives for a 
certain time things quite right and of 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 55 

some value even which after all are not 
necessary, lest by not detaching our- 
selves from them they get such a hold 
upon us that in the end they do become 
practically indispensable to us. The 
time was when Friday was treated by 
earnest Church people as a day with 
which dances and theatre-going were 
inconsistent. Now we seem to be 
-apidly losing that attitude, and the 
reaction has made its way into Sunday 
so as to tend to make that day of holy 
joy nothing but a " week-end' ' with a 
diminishing regard for its Eucharistic 
worship. 

III. The way to attain this state of 
quiet happiness is to search with most 
anxious determination for the real good, 
and to distinguish it from the apparent, 
the immediate, the transitory good. 
Clearness of vision will come as we look 
determinedly under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit. He can and will throw 
light on right action in the homeliest 
as well as in the deepest matters. At 



56 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

the same time we learn to discern where- 
in lies the insidious evil, lurking behind 
the fancied good. 

We may with profit read often the 
description of the Holy City, as S. John 
saw it, with its characteristic mark of 
purity, spotless purity, requiring that 
those who enter to dwell therein shall 
be undefiled, shall "have washed their 
robes and made them white in the Blood 
of the Lamb." "There shall in no wise 
enter into it anything that defileth. M 



VI. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF LOVE FOR 
OUR NEIGHBOR. 

" Blessed is he that consider eth the poor and 
needy" 

Psalm XLI. i. 

Again we find a parallel to one of the 
Gospel Beatitudes — "Blessed are the 
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy/ ' 
And as with the Gospel law of happiness 
the reward that shall be given is here 
set forth — "The Lord shall deliver him 
in the time of trouble." 

There are some laws of the Kingdom 
which are laws of nature lifted up to a 
higher level by the Incarnation, and 
this is one. Moreover the relationship 
between love for God and love for man 
is a necessary relationship. "Whoso 
hath this world's goods, and seeth his 
brother have need, and shutteth up his 
57 



58 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

compassion from him, how dwelleth the 
love of God in him? " " He that loveth 
not his brother whom he hath seen, 
how can he love God Whom he hath 
not seen?" 

Let us represent our Lord in His 
yearning love for the whole human race 
— the poor and needy from the sin 
entailed by the Fall. 

I. The state is that of faithfulness 
to the law of love. A distinct point of 
interpretation is found in the parallel 
between the speaker and the Incarnate 
Son of God in His life upon earth among 
His enemies, and including His "own 
familiar friend whom He trusted; who 
did also eat of His bread.' ' Our Lord 
came in poverty and need, and some 
were found who were willingly bound 
by the law of love, and succoured Him. 
Such were the household at Bethany, 
Zacchaeus, and Joseph of Arimathea. 

Tradition has given us the legendary 
incidents related of S. Veronica and of 
the Wandering Jew to illustrate the two 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 59 

ways in which the acceptance or refusal 
of this duty work out. For us the 
4 'poor and needy* ' include many be- 
sides those in physical distress. We are 
to include those who are in need of the 
knowledge of God, of grace, of pardon, 
the young, the fallen, and the ' ' poor rich. " 

Then there is that application of the 
law of love which is so indispensable to 
those living any sort of common life — 
in the home, in schools, clergy-houses 
or convents. The ' ' poor and needy ' ' are 
often those who need sympathy with 
their faults and shortcomings as they 
concern ourselves, and all the forbear- 
ance and gentleness that the true dis- 
ciple of Christ can bring. 

Faithfulness to the law of love is 
wanting where open or secret hostility 
is cherished in any way — by gesture, 
tongue, eye, or thought. Judas became 
a traitor by slow and unnoticed steps, 
and was a traitor, rather than an enemy, 
because he continued apparently the 
"familiar friend." 



60 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

II. What the beatitude is can be 
dimly realized by those who have been 
the conscious objects of Christ's par- 
doning love, exercised in the Ministry 
of Reconciliation. 

A six-fold reward is promised, in the 
language of the Psalm. ' ' The Lord shall 
deliver him" — the reward of eternal 
life when he shall be delivered from the 
power of sin, Satan, and death. "The 
Lord shall preserve him" — the gift of 
God's prevenient grace which goes 
before and saves the first steps from 
error. "And keep him alive" — God's 
quickening grace, or daily power that 
invigorates and renews. " That he may 
be blessed upon earth" — God's con- 
summating grace which deepens and 
strengthens character. "Deliver not 
thou him unto the will of his enemies " — 
protection from our ghostly foe. "The 
Lord comfort him when he lieth sick 
upon his bed" — strength at that crit- 
ical moment, "our last hour." 

The great scene which illustrates this 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 61 

beatitude is the scene at the final Judg- 
ment, where the law of love as forming 
character is decisive. " Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of 
these My brethren ye have done it 
unto Me." We should read that passage 
in the twenty-fifth chapter of S. Mat- 
thew often and give it the widest spir- 
itual and personal interpretation. It 
is a vivid setting forth of the Commun- 
ion of Saints, as members of the One 
Body, where in' the suffering or rejoic- 
ing of one all suffer or rejoice in sym- 
pathy with him. 

III. The road to this blessed state of 
loving considerateness towards others, 
to be carefully distinguished from spas- 
modic, condescending, sentimental acts 
of generosity, or that kind that is meant 
to quiet a conscience that accuses of 
indulgence of self, is the difficult, tire- 
some road of unselfishness. Only when 
self is foremost are our judgments harsh 
and our sympathies blunted. In pro- 
portion as we esteem and use our own 



62 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

privileges do we desire and try to extend 
those privileges to others. The exten- 
sion of the Church with her full privileges 
of Sacraments and Truth to all men is 
the widest recognition of the poor and 
needy and it is a recognition that lan- 
guishes today, excepting perhaps in 
foreign missions, which is only one de- 
partment of giving this succour. 

The great danger to all of us who 
have and use the full life of the Church 
is that we get into a state of self- 
congratulating orthodoxy, where hypoc- 
risy and pride are ever present dangers. 
Lazarus lies at our door begging for 
spiritual crumbs, and we will not let our 
sons enter the sacred Ministry to relieve 
the beggar's need. 

" 'If I have eaten my morsel alone/ 
The patriarch spoke in scorn; 
What would he think of the Church, were he 
shown 
Heathendom, huge, forlorn, 
Godless, Christless, with soul unfed, 
While the Church's ailment is fulness of bread, 
Eating her morsel alone? 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 63 

1 1 am debtor alike to the Jew and the Greek, ' 

The mighty Apostle cried, 
Traversing continents souls to seek, 

For love of the Crucified. 
Centuries, centuries since have sped, 
Millions are famishing, we have bread, 

Yet we eat our morsel alone. 

Ever of them who have larger dower, 

Shall Heaven require the more, 
Ours is influence, knowledge, power, 

Ocean from shore to shore, 
And East and West in our ears have said, 
'Give us, give us your Living Bread/ 

Yet we eat our morsel alone. 

'Freely ye have received, so give,' 

He bade, Who has given us all; 
How shall the soul in us longer live, 

Deaf to their starving call, 
For whom the Blood of the Lord was shed, 
And His Body broken to give them bread, 

If we eat our morsel alone ?" 



VII. 

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GODLY 
FEAR. 

"Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord: he 
hath great delight in His commandments" 

Psalm CXII. i. 

The final words of the preceding 
Psalm are concerning fear — "The fear 
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,' 1 
and we find that the Psalm before us is 
a setting forth of the happiness of such 
fear of God. 

Let us represent our Blessed Lord, 
upon Whom in His Humanity the Holy 
Ghost descended, as exhibiting through- 
out His earthly life that awe and rever- 
ence of the Divine Majesty and that 
love of the Divine Will which are ele- 
ments of Holy Fear. * 

There are four distinct kinds of fear — 
worldly fear, the attitude of one who is 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 65 

living without God in the world; 
servile fear, which looks upon God as a 
hard taskmaster; "I knew thee because 
thou art an hard man, reaping where 
thou hast not sown and gathering where 
thou hast not strawed, and I was 
afraid ; initial fear, the dread of losing 
one's soul, so to a certain extent spring- 
ing from a love of God; and filial fear, 
or the dread of falling short in any 
degree of perfect love to God. 

Now the Beatitude which we have 
before us is in reference to one who, 
having possessed initial fear, has gone 
on to filial fear, and is experiencing the 
joy of living and acting from the very 
highest motive, the perfect love which 
casts out fear, that is, which banishes 
all sense of terror and cringing towards 
the Being Who is Power because He is 
also known as Mercy, Justice, and Love. 

I. This state of filial fear is one of 
profound consciousness that in the 
sight of God we are sin and nothingness 
in ourselves. We have human nature, 



66 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

soiled as to innocence, degraded as to 
dignity, though at the same time con- 
scious that we have still the image of 
God and are capable of being restored 
to the dignity and estate which will be 
to His glory. 

A sense of all this leads to profound 
veneration for the Being Who is holy 
and good, our Creator, and so inculcates 
adoration and worship. Then there is 
the profound horror of sin, and the de- 
sire from pure love for the Holy God to 
avoid whatever is contrary to His Will, 
because antagonism to His Will is the 
essence of sin. 

So, also, as we learn our inability to 
become better except by His own life 
given us there results the attitude of 
dependence upon God in our efforts to 
please Him and show our love for Him. 
And these three elements, veneration, 
dependence, and submission are the 
characteristics of the fear which the 
Psalmist describes as blessed. 

II. With the attainment of even a 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 67 

measure of filial fear comes the relief 
from both worldly and servile fear, 
these two degrading attitudes which are 
concerned only with the desire to escape 
hell. To rest in these alone could not be 
joy, but anguish of the keenest, because 
of the feeling that if hell be escaped it 
will only be by the narrowest margin. 
Death, from that standpoint, cannot be 
contemplated excepting with absolute 
dread. On the other hand the state of 
filial fear at last leads to the longing in 
God's good time to escape from that 
which conditions and mars our perfect 
love, and death comes to be understood 
as an actual good, though none the less 
bitter and humbling, because it is the 
penalty of sin. 

So with the thought of judgment. The 
joy of filial fear is that of firm assurance 
that having sought to submit entirely 
to His Will from desire to please Him, 
we know that the infirmities of our 
human nature, the terrible crippling 
power of sin, will be dealt with according 



68 The Beatitudes of the Psalter 

to Divine insight and mercy, and the 
verdict will be that of love. While the 
joy of heaven will lie in the fact that 
there can be nothing to mar the perfect 
exercise of love, the joy of growing in 
that direction will make even the Church 
on earth a foretaste of heaven. 

III. The way to this beatitude now 
is to strive to live day by day in this 
spirit of filial fear. 

We are called upon to hear God speak- 
ing through His Church, His written 
Word, in the silence of Retreat and 
Meditation, in the advice from the 
writings of holy men, in the confessional, 
in the direction of our spiritual guides, 
and in the voice of conscience. 

All these are, perhaps, thought of 
as trite and commonplace methods, and 
very likely will be treated with question- 
ing, opposition, resentment, disobedi- 
ence, if only worldly and slavish fear, or 
even initial fear are the sole foundation, 
but are full of peace and consolation 
and interior blessings to those who are 



The Beatitudes of the Psalter 69 

living in the spirit of sons and daughters 
of the God Who " loved us and gave 
Himself for us " and Who is Perfect Love. 

"Then why, O Blessed Jesu Christ 
Should I not love Thee well? 
Not for the sake of winning heaven 
Nor of escaping hell; 

Not from the hope of gaining aught, 

Not seeking a reward; 
But as Thyself hast loved me 

O ever-loving Lord, 

So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, 

And in Thy praise will sing; 
Solely because Thou art my God, 

And my most loving King." 



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